International Digital Workshop – Volterra April 2016

The International Digital Workshop took place at the Volterra International Residential College April 21-27 2016.

It was organized and run by Giorgio Castellano (zero order architecture), Jan Pernecky (rese arch), Thomas Tholt and Jan Paclt (mx3d, zero order architecture), an international group of architects and researchers.

Inspired by the painting in Volterra “The Deposition” by Rosso Fiorentino the students worked on abstract compositions, both in virtual and physical space. The final outputs were publicly exhibited on Volterra main square, bridging the conventional with non-conventional.

The rotational composition of the characters on the original painting and intentional neglect of central perspective were the key aspects for the final installation. The spatial dynamics was expressed by motion of robotic arm, weaving a thread in-between timber structure and painting with light. The perception of the installation can be twofold: a spatial interpretation of the Renaissance painting, and an interaction between thought of man and algorithm of machine.

In six day workshop students attended lectures on digital art and architecture and acquainted skills in Rhinoceros and Grashopper software. The tutoring sessions ranged from basic modeling to advanced iterative operations. Students had opportunity to use six-axes robotic arm and custom developed and 3d printed end effectors for design expression and production (LED painting, brightness tracking and final design referencing). Moving back and forth between virtual and real was the main accent of the workshop.

You can see more complete documentation of the workshop, including personal profiles of the tutors, on the dedicated website: http://volterra.rese-arch.org/

All photos shown below were taken by the workshop tutors and participants.